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Dear Shopping,

I came to a realisation recently that has shaken me to my very core: I hate you. Yep, BB King said it best, ‘The Thrill Has Gone.’ It just doesn’t feel the same anymore. I don’t yearn for you, I don’t long for days off so I can indulge in you. I cheated on you with the internet a few times, but even that was a bit ‘meh’. And you know what it’s all about? It’s because you’ve cheapened yourself.

No, literally, you have. You’re all ‘Primark’ and ‘New Look’ and whatever. I can’t handle it. Seeing people run through those stores and get 57 items for £2.50 just crushes my soul. I cannot possibly shop in places that encourage you to use a basket. Do you know what it’s like to see people pile clothes into a basket with no regard for the style, colour or if they’d even suit them? No you don’t damnit! You just want me to spend money!

But you know what? I refuse to do it. Everyone’s gotten so caught up in this hysteria of cheapness. It’s the ‘in’ thing now to brag about how much you got for how little. I can’t remember the last time I paid someone a compliment about an outfit without them retorting ‘It was £8 from Primark!’ Shopping, you are now just about price when you used to be about quality. People look at the price before they even look at the style. If it’s cheap enough, the style goes out the window altogether. Who cares if it suits you when it only costs £3?

The things I used to love about you, Shopping, were taking time, feeling fabrics, admiring prints, finding something unique. But now I despise high street shops because there’s a stampede of girls who want their latest fix of disposable fashion. You can keep your polyester mix and goddamn pleather! Keep it!

I love clothes, that’s no secret. Anything I’ve bought recently, I’ve bought from Dress Exchanges (shops that sell on your barely worn clothes that are no more than a few years old). I go to ones in good areas where rich women discard of an outfit they may have only worn once. I recently found my dream Missoni dress in there for a price that would probably give a Primark Princess’s a heart attack, but was actually a fraction of what it would have cost new. That, to me, is a thrill. I will have that dress for years. I see no joy in buying something to wear once.

I know my style and what suits me and when I come across those things, I don’t fret too much about the price. Hell, you’re reading the words of a girl who once spent her rent money on a jacket. I get giddy when I come across something that’s timeless, classic and just my style, but shopping, you won’t get me to be one of those sheep, blindly buying with no sense of what actually looks good. I’m sorry, but we’re over.